Developing a New Rapid, Relevant, and Reliable (R³) Method for Accelerated Measurement of Carbonation Progress at Gas Overpressure

The determination of durability-relevant material resistances of concrete is of great importance. They serve as input to engineering models to predict the durability of structures under real environmental conditions. The natural resistances have to be determined in time-consuming experiments, since the processes in nature are very slow. This is particularly important for new materials where long-term experience is not yet available. Thus, accelerated testing is required. Only that way new materials can be evaluated regarding their durability and subsequently be used in practical applications. For carbonation, a new R³ accelerated test method is presented in this contribution. An automated carbonation pressure chamber was developed. It consists of a pressure vessel, automated in such a way that it can apply gas overpressure of various intensities up to 8 bar to mortar and concrete samples. Simultaneously, it can control and regulate the ambient CO₂ concentration from 0 to 99.5% in a fully automated and continuously variable procedure. Experiments were carried out with varying combinations of gas overpressure at CO₂ concentrations of 3 vol.-% to achieve the most time-efficient carbonation of mortars and concretes. Mortars with different material compositions were used to evaluate the general suitability of the test procedure with the developed equipment. The automated carbonation pressure chamber enables reliable carbonation testing with a total duration under accelerated conditions of only 7 days.